Defense lawyer ready to retire, roam

BREMERTON– When dealing with killers, the best piece of advice Roger Hunko ever received was upon first meeting them, look for something you like about them.

For Hunko, 70, the venerable Kitsap County defense attorney whose expertise on death penalty trials involved him in some of the more notable and heinous Washington state cases through the past three decades, it was usually easy.

“I look at people and I like them,” said Hunko, who is retiring after first being licensed in Washington state in 1979. “Although I never expected to know as many murderers as I do.”

Hunko had been co-counsel on the case of Gabriel Gaeta, charged in the 2014 rape and murder of 6-year-old Jenise Wright, but he was released at his own request. Last month the state Supreme Court ruled on another of his cases, and he has one more hearing, a sentencing for a drug case.

He has no plans to practice again. He has no plans at all except to sell his home and roam the country in an RV with his wife, Kathleen, and their two dogs.

“Just going to go, gypsy life,” Hunko said. “I like not having a plan.”

For somebody known almost as much for his skill as an attorney as his mellow, likable demeanor, it may be the most fitting retirement. After all, Hunko took the law school entrance exam on a whim, after a night of drinking tequila and playing dice, only to score in the top 9 percent in the country.

“I wasn’t hung over, I was still drunk,” Hunko said.

He estimated that he had been on about 30 aggravated murder cases, and of the death penalty cases he took, only one client was condemned to die — Robert Lee Yates, convicted in 2002 of murdering two women in Pierce County and number five of eight on the state’s death row.

Those who worked for him at his firm in Port Orchard, and those who argued against him in cases where the stakes couldn’t be higher, said Hunko was a straight-forward advocate — professional and passionate — but never underhanded or abrasive. He lifted weights competently in his younger days and wears loud shirts, but he is not known for flamboyance.

“He really practiced from the heart,” said Kevin Kelly, now chief deputy prosecutor in Kitsap County District Court. In 1996, Kelly was one of the prosecutors who argued against Hunko in Kitsap County’s last death penalty trial, the case of Steven R. Morgan.

Tina Robinson, Kitsap County prosecutor, was hired by Hunko in 2006 for her first job out of law school. She said he taught her to love her job as a defense attorney and how to relate to clients as people.

“He will fight till the end for his clients,” she said. “He is a great guy with a great heart and he is a very good attorney.”

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on the Fourth of July, Hunko was a twin. His brother, Robert, died as an infant. He was raised in New Jersey and served four years in the Air Force before roaming the country in a Volkswagen bus. He eventually made his way to Pocatello, Idaho, where he went to college, majoring in history, and he later decided to give law school a shot.

His opposition to the death penalty cemented following the execution of Ted Bundy by the state of Florida in 1989. Although the death penalty is still on the books, Gov. Jay Inslee imposed a moratorium on executions in 2014.

Hunko keeps a sense of humor about his cases, but he said some of the facts would get to him.

“The hardest ones are when children are killed,” he said. “Sometimes after looking at the pictures I have to wait a few days before I go see my client because I’m still angry. But somebody has to do it.”